Discussion
Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900) was an Armenian-Russian painter, who is famous for his seascapes and landscapes in Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and Turkey. Many of his paintings were set in the ancient Greek world, including his home, Feodosia, where he carried out archaeological studies of the ancient Greek legacy. After the generation of artists to which Aivazovsky belonged, such as ‘Peredvizhniki (The Wanderers)’, ‘Mir Iskusstva (World of Art)’ became a dominant group in Russian art history at the turn of the 20
th century. Notable members of ‘Mir Iskusstva’ include Léon Bakst (1866-1924) and Valentin Serov (1865-1911), who travelled to Greece in 1907 to deepen their understanding of ancient Greek culture, and Bakst later compiled the experience in a book,
Serov and I in Greece, published in 1923.
As part of a wider project aiming to reconstruct the faunal landscape of the ancient Greek Mediterranean, including the Black Sea region, we have been studying the accounts of early travellers in Greece and Ukraine to gain an insight into the nature of the landscapes which they encountered. Art analyses of Aivazovsky's paintings and translations of writings by Bakst and Serov offer a rich resource in this regard. Aivazovsky depicted a wide range of locations in his studies of ancient Greece, especially in Crimea, from morning in Feodosia to night in Ayu-Dag. Although these paintings were produced in the mid-19th century, the landscapes have much to tell us about the pre-industrialised landscape, vegetation and fauna of the region, particularly Aivazovsky’s depictions of Feodosia, which held particular significance for him as both painter and archaeologist. Similarly, Bakst and Serov offer vivid descriptions of the landscapes they witnessed in Greece and Asia Minor, highlighting both the scenery and the harsh climate they encountered. While they interpreted ancient Greece as a unique place and as a source of profound artistic and cultural inspiration, they were also introduced to Arabic culture. Just as Russia was a location in which European and Asian cultures meet, so Greece was where classical and ‘exotic’ cultures merged. Overall, both the analysis of paintings by Aivazovsky and the travels of Bakst and Serov convey the significance of the ancient Greek land for them, while providing us with archaeological information about ancient Greece.
This paper will outline the nature of the project in reconstructing ancient landscapes and demonstrate the contribution to our understanding of the classical past to be made by integrating more recent artistic and literary evidence.
